Todd Harrison of Mesa, AZ, wrote in with his teardown and restoration of a ’80s-era Apple.

The very first computer I ever used was an Apple II Plus in high school and I couldn’t get enough time on this machine. I was more than fascinated by computers I was obsessed. Every minute learning on the Apple was a joy to me but later my parents got me a Commodore 64 home computer which consumed me for years. I still took every computer class I could in high school where all the assignments were on the Apple II Plus and I think we had Apple IIe computers by my senior year.

I’d be interested in a USB-based open source 5.25″ floppy disk drive if any such thing exists. Specifically for reading Apple IIe disks.

Dean Nichols

Nice Video… too bad your Apple ][+ info is so rusty. There is still an active Apple // community on line. Check out a2central.com for a start.
There is also an annual Apple // get together every summer in Kansas City called Kansasfest. This year (the 23rd annual) it is July 17 through 22nd. Check out kfest.org for details. We stay in the dorms of Rockhurst University and steep ourself in Apple lore. Amazing new software is still being written. Amazing hardware is still being designed and a whole lot of Apple // fun happens. Great for the novice or the expert hobbyist. Very reasonable price to attend. For me (in SFO area California) it costs me more to get there and get home than it does to attend the event! Most meals and lodging are covered in the registration fee. If you can go without sleep you even get more for your money.

In the Disk II, the 74LS125 chip was notorious for overheating and burning out. I repaired many Disk IIs by replacing this chip. Yours has had this repair and is why it has a later date code. The other thing that went wrong was that airborne grease and cigarette tar would collect on the two metal rods on which the disk head carriage rides. Remove the screws holding the plastic hold-downs, remove and clean the rods and the carriage holes with alcohol and, most likely, the drive will come right back. I got so fast at doing this that I could bring a Disk II back in less than five minutes start to finish. In fact, I don’t remember ever servicing a Disk II for any other problem.

I was an Apple Certified Tech in a New England computer store chain back in the Apple II days.